Indications have emerged that the Police may have been involved in the recent abduction of the National Chairman of Action Alliance, AA, Kenneth Udeze.
There are also indications that the police High Command and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Command are worried over the allegations.
Recall that Udeze was kidnapped on August 30, in front of a Zenith Bank branch in Abuja.
He, however regained his freedom on Tuesday.
Udeze was abducted in a mysterious circumstance, in what his family and party sources said was a clear case of political kidnapping, linking his travail to the Imo State Governorship candidate of the party in the last election and the upcoming convention of his party in Osun State.
Recall that Action Alliance is a political party founded and abandoned by Rochas Okorocha, a former governor of Imo State.
Udeze was suspected to have been abducted by security men from Osun State, who were on unofficial assignment and who took him to Osun State, where he was held incommunicado.
According to sources close to the family, Udeze was kidnapped in front of the Dutse Alhaji branch of Zenith Bank in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and taken away in a black SUV.
His wife had told newsmen that her husband woke up on Friday and found several text messages indicating heavy unauthorized withdrawals from his bank accounts.
“After suspecting his account had been hacked, he rushed to the bank to find out what happened. He was with his driver when he was kidnapped outside the Zenith Bank,” she said.
During the 2019 general elections, Okorocha’s son-in-law, Uche Nwosu, contested the governorship of Imo State under the AA in an attempt to succeed his father-in-law after a failed attempt to pick the All Progressives Congress, APC, ticket, and lost the election to Emeka Ihedioha of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
Nwosu’s electoral loss led to crisis in AA and an attempt to remove Udeze from office by the governorship candidate and other politicians affiliated to Okorocha, who campaigned and won the seat for Imo West Senatorial District under the APC.
Several party and family sources who Next Edition contacted, insisted that his kidnap was political.
Meanwhile, Next Edition gathered that the police hierarchy had been jolted by the possibility that police personnel could come from Osun State to pick up Udeze without reporting at either the Police Headquarters or the FCT Command, and did the operation and left.
A party source, who pleaded anonymity, said: “It was a pure case of kidnapping by some unidentified police officers from Osun State, who might not have been on official assignment.
“From police investigation so far, they did not officially book for their arrival and departure at any police station in the FCT. Their plan was to come unofficially and carry out their evil agenda. We don’t think it was a DSS (Department of State Security) operation.”
The source stated that the Office of the FCT Commissioner of Police and Deputy Commissioner of Police Criminal Investigations Department, CID, FCT Command, indicated that if security operatives were involved, they were not from Abuja and could not have been on purely official assignment.
It is believed that the Police High Command will set up an inquiry into the incident and that heads will roll as those found culpable will face the music.
Meanwhile, party sources fingered a sitting senator and a governorship candidate in Imo State in the last election as being behind Udeze’s travails.
Mrs. Udeze on Tuesday confirmed as much when she told Next Edition that her husband and herself had been receiving threat calls, while their phone lines were hacked.
The party source maintained that both the senator and governorship candidate had been using a party chieftain in Osun State as well as some lawmakers in the Imo State House of Assembly, who defected to AA and contested elections and won, to try to hijack the party by trying to remove Udeze by hook and crook.
